Interviews

Jitendra Patel : Interview with an Illustrator

Creative, Illustration, Interviews, , , , , 12 comments

Born and raised in Baroda, Jitendra Patel (aka Jitu) has a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts. Currently, he works as an art director at Ogilvy and Mather, Mumbai. Besides his art, Jitu is also passionate about movies and old-time songs. He spends his leisure time sketching and lately, attempting to learn how to play the flute!

Why are you an Illustrator?
Since childhood, drawing and painting have been my first love. My notebooks were filled with drawings rather than notes. So you could say my childhood passion lead me into the world of art.

Did you attend school for fine art or design?
Yes, I went to one of the best art schools in India – Faculty of Fine Arts MSU University, Baroda.
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Sumedha Sah : Interview with an illustrator

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Sumedha Sah is a self taught artist and illustrator and hails from the beautiful hill station of Nainital. Having completed her Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from MIT Manipal, She is currently pursuing her Master’s degree in Sustainable Architecture from CEPT University in Ahmedabad. Her artwork is inspired by mundane life experiences, her travels and her innate love for nature. She enjoys spending time with her pets, 3 dogs and a cat. As well as travelling to the unexplored parts of the world.

Some of her clients include, The National Geographic Traveller Magazine India, TED x India and Full Circle Publishing based out of Delhi.

Why are you an Illustrator?
I draw because it gives me immense joy. I draw for this simple reason everyday. With a sketchbook and a box of travel watercolours, I doodle and create. I find inspiration in the happenings of everyday. I strongly believe in the simple joys and know that many of our lives go by, doing things for the head rather than the heart. My sketchbooks are a way to document my life and record the thoughts that cloud my mind on certain days. On others they are a mirror to what I feel.

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Sujata Keshavan : Interview

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Sujata Keshavan
Chairperson: Ray+Keshavan/Brand Union
Judge, Branding, D&AD awards 2014.

What does your role as a D&AD judge entail?
The D&AD awards are highly respected and are widely regarded as the Gold Standard of awards. It really means a great deal to creative professionals to win a pencil. The best thing about being a judge, is that one gets the opportunity to see the most recent, most brilliant work, the best of the best. It gives you a sense of the state of design in the world.
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Sreejita Chakraborty : Interview with an Art Director

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Having stayed in various parts of the country, Sreejita always brings a fresh perspective to the table. Being one of Ogilvy’s home-grown creatives, she has worked in the agency’s Delhi and Kolkata office. With a keen sense of design she is also known for experimenting with typography. She is an erratic, chaotic and a somewhat charismatic individual. Treating each work as her last, she believes she is the most finicky art-director on the face of the planet.

Why are you into Advertising?
Because I would rather think of new ideas every day than be submerged in excel sheets. It’s fun, it’s chaotic. It’s me.

Did you attend school for fine art or design or Communications?
Yes, I spent the best years of my life studying Communication Design at D. J. Academy of Design, Coimbatore.

Tell us about your awards?
Other than a couple of regional and Pan-Asia awards, I’m still working up to the biggies. You’ll also find my work in last year’s Luerzer’s Archive, Volume 6.

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Sameer Kochure: Interview with a Creative Director

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Sameer has been in advertising for 11 years now. From taking up a job without a contract to creating original work across 6 countries, he has come a long way. He is currently, as he likes to put it, ‘fabulously jobless’ since his last company Commonwealth, APAC went houdini on him. He keeps busy sauntering from one beach town to the next while waiting for a challenging, integrated role and dreaming of a multimillion dollar contract. He has worked in Mumbai, New Delhi and Kuala Lumpur.

Why are you into advertising?
I wasn’t smart enough to do anything else. With my modest performance through school, my mom knew it was best not to leave me to a more conventional future. Which back then used to be some form of medicine or engineering.
She took me to meet some of her friends working in advertising. The prospect of escaping math forever appealed to me. As soon as I enrolled in college, I fell in love with advertising. My mom had seen something in me I hadn’t. Thank god for making moms! And giving me an especially gifted one.

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Bodhisatwa : Interview with a Creative Director

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Bodhisatwa Dagupta is a Creative Director, Grey worldwide, Delhi, at the time this interview published.

Bodhisatwa, or Bodhi as he is fondly known in the advertising circus is an obsessive, compulsive writer. When he’s not writing ads for a target audience he hasn’t met, he’s writing the first line of books that he won’t write. And when he’s not writing that, he’s writing about irrelevant things that have no implication in the macrocosm of things. Bodhi hates long words. Like obituary. And when the time is ripe, he’ll write his own, thank you very much.

Why are you into advertising?
Strangely enough, because I like the word ‘fuck’. I’ll explain. When I was a kid, perhaps 6-7 years or so, I used to see these hot shot advertising executives waltz into my place to have meetings with my dad (who, because he was in PR) had to deal closely with them. They looked really cool – long cigarettes dangling dangerously from their lips, drinking at odd hours, and using the word ‘fuck’ freely. I wanted to be like that. I wanted to be cool. And so at the age of 7, I made up my mind that I’d like to be in advertising.

The reason I stayed in advertising, years later, inspite of finding out that contrary to popular beliefe, it is not cool at all, is simply because I don’t think I can do anything else.

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Prasad Rao : Interview with an Art Director

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A keen observer, a doer, and a humble guy at heart. His work reflects his ingenious ideas and lateral thinking. Even the smallest of jobs rolled out from his desk have a sense of sincerity and a sense of design. Apart from being his creative self he is also a team player and a leader, who supports his subordinates and teaches them every little bit he has learned over the years. There are very few people who have the gift and so willingly share it with others and Prasad is one of them.Working with him in a team is not only fun but also very gratifying. (I made my copy partner write this last part, haha!!)
Why are you into advertising?
I’ve always loved to think, read and ask questions in school. I used to discuss any subject, loved to argue and debate, loved to day dream, loved to observe the people around, loved to make stories, loved to draw and paint, so advertising was the closest where I could do all of this. So here I am today, doing what I wanted to and I am lucky to be also getting paid for it. So it’s been a great journey so far.
Although very few know that I wanted to be a lawyer when in school.

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Vikas Dutt: Interview with a Photographer

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Born 1975 in Varanasi, considered to be the oldest city of the world. Super critical about his own work, enjoys driving long distances. Driving on highways is his stress buster. Believer of “You can’t learn photography, you just have it”. His works have been published in four consecutive editions of Luerzer’s Archive’s “200 Best Ad Photographer’s Worldwide”. He has been twice nominated for Black & White Spider Awards, Hasselblad Masters Semifinalist, received Honorable mentions in IPA and PX3 Paris Awards.

His most notable recent campaigns include Incredible India and J&K Tourism. His images for Incredible India have gone viral on the net and are being selected for various awards and publications.

Why are you a photographer?
GOD and my wife wanted so.

Do you remember any decisive moment when you felt ‘I want to be a photographer’?
Since childhood, I used to feel something special on just a mere sight of an SLR camera. Experience of holding an SLR was always an out of the world feeling. I started getting into darkroom in my college days. Developing prints in the darkroom used to be so thrilling in those days.

Though I don’t remember when it really caught me.. I guess I wanted something that was very sacred to me and something I should be remembered for; that something was photography.

Professionally, photography happened pretty late. I didn’t know how photography would work for me financially. Guess, time and destiny ruled and I started pursuing my passion as my full time profession.

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Aneesh Jaisinghani – Creative Director and Partner at Eleven Brandworks

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Aneesh Jaisinghani, an Applied Arts graduate from Delhi College of Art, joined advertising in the year 2000 with a creative hot shop called Dhar & Hoon. He worked with agencies like Grey, Lintas, Bates, Cheil, Contract before becoming a part of Eleven. He likes to keep things simple and lives life by the philosophy- Be nice to people on your way up because you will meet them again on your way down!

Why are you into advertising?
Two reasons. First one- My mother was an artist with a very popular children’s magazine of the 80s called TARGET and then with Teens Today. I loved what she used to do and wanted to be an artist myself.
Second Reason: I did my one month summer training while I was still in college, with Leo Burnette (at that time, Chaitra Leo Burnette). There, I came across a man who used to walk into office at 2 in the afternoon, wore pink colored bermudas, sported a long white colored pony tail, yet used to call all the shots. He was the creative head of the agency. And I was convinced that that was the life I wanted for myself!

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Santosh Madhavan : Spell Advertising

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While one is asked to comment about himself it seems to be hazy or puzzled. To be candid, I feel  I’m sensitive  in a big size. Go excited on even small account   and get back let-down in the very next sequence.  I just always love to be ideas and words next to my  babies  Anwita & Iniyaa. The people closed to me use to say I’m hard working and love to take strain at  maximum level for a better fruit.  Believing,  hard work does pay. And stay sincere to what I get involved.

Why are you into Advertising?
Advertisement , I feel  the space of unlimited ideas. It has been  a cohesive platform  of art and science  which left  me sportive and vibrant. Each day brings  fresh challenge and excitement which keep me energetic and enthusiastic. I always eager to be challenged by  words and ideas.   The transformati on of my ideas and the endeavor taken behind in a successful brand story , has been a driving force which pep me up in a great account.  Advertising is never a fag one but stay me in fettle. So  I dented myself  and got interested.
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